[wideminded]

"What was called the protein-folding problem 20 years ago is solved", says Peter Wolynes, a chemist and protein folding expert at the University of California, San Diego.

"Most researchers won't go quite that far. David Baker of the University of Washington, Seattle, believes that such notions are "dangerous" and could undermine interest in the field. But all agree that long standing obstacles are beginning to fall."

- August 8th issue of Science, p. 784.

[texas booster]

I don't have a subscription to Science so I will miss some of his contentions.

We mostly understand how a protein is folded, and even are starting to see into the "why" a protein is folded.

There is an enormous gap into being able to model a protein and its interactions with other materials. Proteins operate very differently in the presence of water than when it is not present.

An earlier folding problem looked at the delivery of medicine by nanotube. Normal biochemical modeling does not take into account the motion of each atom in water, e.g. F@H calculations showed that standard modeling was not detailed enough to be able to accurately predict the results without these interactions.

Proteins seem to randomly vibrate (Brownian motion) for a long time, then everything lines up and the protein folds into a new shape. How a particular energy level is reached that triggers folding into a new energy level is a prime concern of the latest research.

Thankfully, research is starting to give us answers to old questions, while also providing new questions for the mill.